Debt / Fixed Income

This sector covers all our debt jobs in capital markets. Also known as fixed income, debt usually refers to bonds, which like equities, are issued by a company or government in order to raise money. Only instead of selling investments in the company, the company sells bonds which are loans with promises to pay the bond holders back their principal plus interest at some designated time in the future. In the meantime, the bonds can be sold to other investors in the secondary bond markets. Typically, the bondholder who is eventually reimbursed is rarely the original buyer. As with equities, investment banks act as the bond underwriters to create bonds and bring them to market.

Until the date of the bond's maturity, the bondholder will receive interest payments in return for lending the issuer money and because these payments take the form of a fixed cash sum paid at regular intervals bonds have become known as fixed income products.

Debt Roles and Fixed Income Career Paths
If you work as a debt specialist, you could do anything from originating, to structuring to syndicating. Or you could even work for a law firm that handles the legal aspects of submitting registration paperwork and other tasks. In an investment bank, origination specialists are usually senior capital markets bankers. Their jobs involve quite a lot of travel to meet clients in an effort to gain insight into their financing needs and to persuade them to offer business to their bank.

If you work in structuring, you tend to be desk bound, creating debt products to suit a company's financial needs. Then it's up to the people on the syndication desk to get the market ready for sale. They calculate the best interest range, assess demand, and make sure the correct documents are in place.